Tatas launch Rs 2,000 cr Mumbai rental housing project

Mumbai: Tata Group’s realty arm Tata Housing Development Company (THDC) has joined hands with the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to invest Rs 2,000 crore for a rental housing project near the metropolis.

“We plan to launch a large rental housing project near Mumbai before Diwali. We have got approvals for the project from the MMRDA,” Tata Housing Development Company managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) Brotin Banerjee told the news agency.

However, Banerjee declined to reveal the time-line and exact investment in the project.

According to sources, the investment would be around Rs 2,000 crore. The project will come up on a 25 acre land between Thane and Bhiwandi, in the neighborhood of the city, and is expected to be ready in three to four years, sources said.

The project is expected to come up on a land parcel owned by Tata Housing and will include a rental component of over 3 million sq ft, it is learnt.

According to a human development report by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), published in September 2009, as many as over 50% people in the island city live in the slums, primarily because of the exorbitant prices of the property in the land starved city.

These people live in three distinct habitat categories - the chawls, which are either single or multi-storeyed hutments, single-room tenements and pavement dwellers.

The percentage of slum dwellers in the other major metros is much lower: in Delhi, it is only 18.9%, it is 11.72% in Kolkata and 25.6% in Chennai, according to the same report.

Maharashtra had launched the rental housing scheme three years ago to provide low cost housing in the city that is starved of proper affordable housing.

The MMRDA is expected to get around 4,000 rental housing units of 160 sq ft each from the Tatas, while the rest can be sold at the market price.